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United Film Festival – Screenwriting Contest

2013 Season
Los Angeles – April / May
New York – May
London – June
San Francisco – Aug./Sept.
Chicago – Sept.
Tulsa – Oct.

This contest offers an amazing opportunity for screenwriters with work in many different genres. Visit the Submissionssection of our website for more information on how to submit.

Along with submitting your script, you may also choose to purchase Script Coverage of your submission, which offers more in-depth analysis of your submission, including an evaluation of Originalty, Story Structure, Characterization, Dialogue, and Mechanics. Submission fees will increase as we get closer to our final deadline so submit today!

MISSION & OBJECTIVEThe United Film Festival Screenwriting Contest, now in its third year, is an opportunity for the United Film Festival to continue to grow our expansive United network and provide a forum for those who often get overlooked in the world of film production – “the screenwriter.” The United Film Festival screens cutting-edge independent films and highly acclaimed classic movies with the audience in mind in six unique cities -Los Angeles, New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago, and Tulsa.

After ten years running successful filmmakers in these cities, our commitment to bringing together talented filmmakers and screenwriters from diverse backgrounds, thus creating a “United” showcase of creative energy and talent, has extended to our Screenwriting Contest. We are commited to providing opportunities for our large and constantly growing network of filmmakers through outlets including our distribution division, United Films. As of 2012, United Films acts as a sales representative for over 50 independent titles, many of whom are United Film Festival alumni or former submitters.

Our Screenwriting Contest calls for short and feature scripts in the following categories: Drama, Comedy, and Horror/Thriller. We will announce three finalists in each category (Feature-length Drama, Feature-length Comedy, Feature length Horror/Thriller, Short Drama, Short Comedy, Short Horror/Thriller) in April 2013 and winners will be announced and honored at the United Film Festival – Los Angeles in May 2013.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
A Tulsa native filmmaker, Jason Connell and his production company Connell Creations founded the United Film Festival – Tulsa ten years ago, expanding to Los Angeles & New York in 2007 and San Francisco, Chicago, & London in 2009. As a result of these six unique festivals, we have built a large network of filmmakers and in 2011, we continued to expand that network by creating a forum solely for screenwriters with the United Film Festivals Screenwriting Contest. Winners are honored at the United Film Festival – Los Angeles.

United Films, the distribution division of Connell Creations and the United Film Festival, continues to support the United network by offering opportunities to filmmakers beyond our festival. We have celebrated many successes through this avenue, and many of those films were originally United Film Festival submissions.

Another way we connect to our network of filmmakers and screenwriters is by offering an option for submitters to receive Coverage, designed to provide valuable insight by sharing comments from our Reading committee. Coverage is optional and can be added to any submission.

In addition to creating the United Film Festival, Jason Connell directed and produced the heartwarming documentary “Strictly Background” in 2008, and has produced critically acclaimed films such as “The Rock-afire Explosion,” “Cleanflix,” “Gabi on the Roof in July,” and “Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians.”

Our United Film Festival – Los Angeles, where Screenwriting Contest finalists will be honored, takes place at the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas.